Sammy Lieberman
'''Samuel "Sammy" Isadore Lieberman is the kind of guy who's every girl's best friend but finds the other boys at the Academy much more difficult to talk to. The eldest son in a conservative Jewish family, it's always been expected that Sammy will follow in his father's footsteps and go into medicine. Sammy broke his father's heart when he decided he wanted to be a dancer instead and he'd do almost anything to prove to his family that he made the right choice. Sammy has a self-deprecating sense of humor, but deep down inside, he's a good guy who wants to do the right thing. He may not be the best dancer at the academy, but he is one of Tara and Kat's closest friends. In the emotional last three episodes of season 2, on his way to the Prix de Fonteyn (Competition), Miss Raine gets the call that Samuel Lieberman was hit by a car while walking to the Prix de Fonteyn. He is pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.' Relationships Tara Webster Sammy, Kat and Tara are best friends. Sammy helps Tara in times of need such as in the episode "Behind Barres," where Sammy helps Tara make a pros and cons list for her the guy she's got her eye on. Tara also advises Sammy and supports him when important decisions need to be made (e.g. when he had to choose between dancing or his Synagogue services). She is not upset or shocked when Sammy declares that he has a boyfriend (Ollie). Tara and Sammy are both picked to represent Australia at the Prix de Fonteyn and are extremely excited! Just before Sammy's unfortunate and shocking death, he leaves Tara a voice message to tell her, "Miss Webster. Can you believe that this momentous day has finally arrived? It's just you and me. Prix de Fonteyn, baby. Look I think Christian's on his way to see you, but, um, ignore him, OK? This is your day, T. Don't get distracted. I was just thinking, remember last year, when we were at the bottom? Now here we are, conquering the world. I'll see you out there." Tara was in shock when she heard about Sammy's sudden death. Kat Karamakov Sammy and Kat are best friends and have grown up together, going to the same school when they were little. Kat and Sammy are shown to have a very stronger bond than others. When Sammy first arrived at the academy he roomed with Kat. They also share something in common. In "Growing Pains," Sammy is getting a dance belt even though he really doesn't want to buy one. In "Heartbeat," this is Kat's reaction to the short shorts she's expected to wear to dance in a music video. ''(see left for both photos). In Week Zero, Kat stands up to Sean and a couple of other guys and says that Sammy is more of a man then all of them put together. As well as Tara, Kat is not shocked or surprised that Sammy has a boyfriend (Ollie). Kat is shown to be deeply sadened by Sammy's death and is seen crying and stating, "We are his family." Christian Reed Sammy and Christian are good friends, some would even say bestfriends. In "Growing Pains," Sammy called someone who works at the store Sammy went for dance belts, and it looked as if Christian liked her, so Sammy called her and left her a message on his phone (with Christian right next to him knowing), and it said "Be brave. Leave a message at the beep." and Sammy does, and pretends to be Christian. They both laugh at the end. Sammy and Christian are roommates and are shown to have a great friendship. At one point in the story line, Sammy admits that he has feelings for Christian, who continues their friendship regardless of the fact that he does not have any romantic intrests in Sammy. Christian was meant to go jogging with Sammy, but chose to go and tell Tara that he loves her, even though Sammy advises Christian not to. On the jog that they were meant to go together, Sammy was hit by a car and dies on the way to hospital. Christian blames himself because of this. Abigail Armstrong Abigail and Sammy used to hate each other. They had an assignment to be tied to each other for 2/4 hours, but Sammy read it as 24 hours. In an episode, Sammy was teaching a dance class for the elderly and Abigail came to dance as well. When Abigail came, Sammy said, "You came!" and Abigail said, "Shut up,I'm dancing!" in a sarcastic way of tone. In episode 17, Abigail and Sammy went public and now are girlfriend and boyfriend. In another episode, Sammy forgets about the picnic Abigail and he were supposed to have. Abigail is furious and they break up. However during season 2, their friendship grows stronger and they spend a lot of time together. On the night before Sammy's death, Abigail and Sammy share a kiss and are both clearly very excited and giddy but say goodbye to each other nervously. After hearing of Sammy's death, Abigail is found and comforted by Kat and Tara as she is sitting in a running shower, fully clothed and crying. She's also distraught over the fact that Sammy died before they could talk about how they felt towards each other. Ollie When Sammy and Ollie first meet, Sammy needs a tutor and Miss Raine makes Ollie be his tutor. Ollie has to do this as he is on probation after "giving his opinion" on the 3rd year tour. Ollie does not help Sammy very much at the start but when Sammy reprimands him, Ollie sees that he has been a "douchebag" and a "tool" to Sammy. Ollie then begins to help Sammy take his ballet from "embarrassing" to "competent." When Sammy passes his tests, he is allowed to go up the coast and participate in another Regional competition for the Prix. Ollie takes him and Christian as this town is where Christian's dad lives. Ollie confesses to being gay which makes Sammy uncomfortable as he is struggling with his emotions and being confused of his sexuality. Ollie tells him he doesn't like the "neurotic" ones, although he confesses after Sammy has finished his dance in the the other regional that this was in fact a lie. They grow to be good friends. {C}In season 2, episode 17 "Love and War," Ollie and Sammy begin dating as Sammy kisses him. They break up briefly in the next episode "Catch Me If I Fall" due to Sammy being afraid of being homosexual and that Ollie outed Sammy without his permission by telling his friends that Sammy was his boyfriend. At the end of the episode, they reconcile and begin dating once again. Unfortunately, since Ollie is so self-obsessed during the Company tryouts, Sammy gets annoyed when Ollie says he's better than Sammy, so Sammy breaks up with him. When we see him next, he's in rehearsals playing Peter for the end of year production. His reaction to Sammy's death is quite horrible due to how bad Ollie had treated Sammy at the end of their relationship. He is seem with his hands on his head crying and Miss Raine starts to comfort him by hugging him, and he hugs back and starts crying even harder. He never got to reconcile with Sammy. That will probably be his biggest "what if." Grace Whitney Grace and Sammy are Pas de Deux partners. Grace doesn't really show much emotion to Sammy and is actually quite indifferent to him. She didn't shed a single tear upon Sammy's death. Though she was seen in one of the final episodes, where Tara, Kat, Christian, Ben, and the rest of the gang were celebrating their memorial to Sammy, she did look a little sad, but then walked away. After that, she didn't show any emotions at all towards anyone. In the whole time she was on the show, Grace was really portrayed as an emotionless person. In the season finale of dance academy, Grace said that she would dedicate her solo to Sammy, but was only saying this to make herself look simpathic. She was corrected by Tara and Abigail when they over heard as they walked into the dressing rooms at the Prix. Ben Tickle At first Ben was a little over the top, and Sammy felt a bit uncomforted with this, as did some of the others. When Sammy stopped Ben from calling things he thought were lame 'gay', Ben calmed down a bit. Ben turned out to be one of Sammy's close friends. Ben and Christian are Sammy's best "mates" and have been through alot together. He was very upset when Sammy died. Prix De Fonteyn In the episode "Ladder Theory," the auditions for the Prix De Fonteyn begin. Sammy's father and brother come to watch him perform (though only seeing his contemporary solo). Sammy doesn't do too well in the Classical round, only scoring 6.9 while others score around 7 and while Miss Raine informs them that there might have been some bias in the judging (one boy, Michael Slade, getting an 8.9 compared to the others, ranging from 6.9 to 7.9). Sammy still doesn't feel too happy about this. When his father and brother surprise him, Sammy tries to keep it a secret until Ollie accidentally reveals this. His father unexpectedly takes this very well. During the contemporary round, Slade (who was a snobby character and often said "The Slade has spoken") decided to sabotage Sammy's performance. During Sammy's contemporary piece, Slade pulls the plug on the music secretly, leaving Sammy, the judges, his father and brother and the audience confused. Fortunately, Christian and Ben catch on to the act and lock Slade away in a closet. Sammy tells the audience to imagine the music and restarts his solo, silently. Tara manages to plug the music back in just as Sammy reaches the peak of the solo. The results are announced, with Grace coming second and Tara winning in the girls section, and Slade coming second (though he as unable to collect him medal, being still stuck in the closet) and Sammy winning in the boys section. Death In the episode "The Prix De Fonteyn," it is shown on the day of the Prix. Sammy, who is nervous and excited at the same time, is banned from dancing two days before the Prix alongside Tara, in order to rest for the competition. To ease the nerves, Kat takes both Tara and Sammy out to Sydney Tower Climb. Sammy asks Christian to go jogging with him, but Christian declines. Later, during the competition in the Class section, Tara notes that Sammy is missing and asks Slade to call him saying she wants him there. Slade agrees and goes to do so however he cannot get through to him through the phone. At t he same time, Miss Raine walks into the Peter Pan class at the Academy where Ben and Kat are performing Peter Pan with Abigail in the class as well and tells Zach she is sorry but she has to interrupt, she appears saddened as she tells the students that she has an important announcement to make. Christian is seen with a "good luck" card while an ambulance siren can be heard in the background. He is then seen running to the Opera House to see Tara to tell her he loves her, but on the way, he walks past a man in a chicken suit who is getting questioned by police (this man was also seen handing Sammy a paper flyer). He does not think much of it, but when h e gets a phone call from Zach, he realizes something is wrong as Zach asks him to come back to the Academy. Christian, however, insists that Zach tell him on the phone what is wrong. When Tara finishes the class section, Christian greets her and sadly informs her that while Sammy was out jogging, he got into an accident where a car hit him. At first, Tara just asks if he broke any bones and if he will be able to dance, but Christian is quiet for a while and Tara realizes something is wrong. Christian then says that Sammy was in a car accident and died on the way to hospital. A scene is then shown of Tara walking into the lounge room of the academy with all the students around including Ollie and Kat who is crying to Miss Raine that, "We are his family!" Tara acknowledges Ben and Christian however goes to Kat and the two cry in each others arms before realizing Abigail is not there. The two of them go and find her fully clothed in the bathroom crying. They pull her out of the shower hugging her. One of the final scenes is of the group and Ollie all sleeping in Sammy and Chrisitan's room even though this is not normally allowed, the teachers allowed it because of the circumstance. The news greatly affected all students, especially his friends and teachers. Tara is then seeing going to a nearby park, alone, during the middle of the night to listen to the voice message Sammy sent to her moments before his untimely death. The group of friends hold a memorial for Sammy at the beach. Christian reads out Sammy's list of 50 things he wanted to do. The number one thing on his list being "make a group of friends I'll know for the rest of my life" which he definitley accomplished. Ben takes Sammy's place in the The Prix De Fonteyn and performs Sammy's solo, even though he is being disqualified. During his performance he calls his friends on stage to dance with him because it is what Sammy wanted. The friends finish by hugging while ballons rain down on them. Friend's Reaction To Death Tara Sammy.jpg|Tara listening to Sammy's voicemail Kat Sammy.jpg|Kat's reaction to Sammy's death Ollie Sammy.jpg|Ollie's reaction to Sammy's death Abigail Sammy.jpg|Abigail's reaction to Sammy's death Abigail Tara Kat Sammy death.jpg|Abigail hugging Kat and Tara after they find her in the shower crying Group Sammy.jpg|The group spending the night in Sammy's room together. Christian is in bed in the lower left Miss Raine finding out.jpg|Miss Raine receiving the call about Sammy's death Chicken man being questioned.jpg|A witness being questioned Miss Raine Telling.jpg|Miss Raine telling the class Christian Finding out.jpg|Chrisitian's reaction while getting the call Group Sammy.jpg|Everyone slept in Sammy and Christian's room that night. Trivia *Sammy is afraid of heights. *Sammy is shown to be attracted to both males and females, having last had a boyfriend before his death, yet having kissed a girl on the night before his death. He never confirmed whether he was straight or gay and it is assumed he was bisexual. *He is considered to be "soft". *He was picked as the number one male to represent Australia in the Prix de Fonnteyn. From this, it can be assumed that he was one of, if not the best, ballet dancers of his age in Australia. *The song Sammy danced to in his last solo performance before his death is 'Easy to Love' by The Jezabels * Sammy made a list of 50 things he would do in his life, the first one being to have a group of friends that he would have until the day he died. * Although Sammy's demise was the writer's and producer's choice, it was done in a mutual agreement with Tom Green, Sammy's actor, as he wished to head off and pursue other career opportunities within Australia and overseas. Quotes *"I didn't say I was gay. I just said I had a boyfriend." *"That's a fairly life-defining moment, Christian." *"Miss Webster. Can you believe that this momentous day has finally arrived? It's just you and me. Prix de Fonteyn, baby. Look I think Christian's on his way to see you, but, um, ignore him, OK? This is your day, T. Don't get distracted. I was just thinking, remember last year, when we were at the bottom? Now here we are, conquering the world. I'll see you out there." *"Every dancer knows that being technically perfect isn't good enough. We need to know why we dance. For me, it's to be connected. I'm inspired by my friends." *"No you won't, because you're going to be the glue. You'll miss me because I'm awesome, but you'll be okay." *"Yes you can, T. Here." *"Help Yourself T." *"You're meant to be dancing." *"I keep on getting these... muffins and I'm afraid that it means I'm a labrador and you're mousies... I think I like you... No that's a lie... I know I like you" * "Make a group of friends I'll rememember for the rest of my life." * "I don't really have friends... I have acquaintances of convenience... Maybe you and I could be mates?" * "You don't own the bar Armstrong." * "We were, I was, I was just helping Abigail." * “Why won’t you admit that you like me? Am I that embarrassing?” * “Yup, are we going public now?” * “Do you know what overheating does to a man’s sperm count?” Gallery Sammy's Gallery Category:Male Characters Category:Students Category:Season One Category:Season Two Category:Characters Category:Deceased Category:LGBT